U.S. backs loans to build world's largest solar power complex

The Obama administration gave preliminary approval Monday for $1.4 billion in federal loan guarantees to help build what it says will be the world's largest solar power complex --  in California's Mojave Desert.
The Department of Energy is offering to back the loans of California-based BrightSource Energy so it can build three solar-energy plants capable of powering 140,000 homes. It says the project could nearly double the amount of solar power generated in the United States.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a former Stanford University professor who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1997, says he supports both renewable and nuclear power sources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

CAPTION

By Cliff Owen, AP

"We're not going to sit on the sidelines while other countries capture the jobs of the future - we're committed to becoming the global leader in the clean energy economy," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.  The project's loan guarantees are the largest the Department of Energy has offered for solar power but are far smaller than the $8.3 billion ones President Obama announced last week for two new nuclear power reactors in Georgia.
On his Facebook page, Chu addressed this disparity:

There has been a vigorous discussion here on Facebook since my last post about President Obama's announcement of a loan guarantee for what will become the first nuclear power plant to break ground in nearly three decades. I'd like to make a few points to continue the discussion.

Some of you expressed a preference for solar and wind power over nuclear energy. I share your enthusiasm for these renewable sources of energy, and, because of the success of the Recovery Act, we are on pace to double our renewable energy capacity by 2012.

But no single technology will provide all of the answers.Wind and solar now provide about 3 percent of our electricity, compared to 20 percent for nuclear. While we are working at hard as we can to promote energy efficiency in every part sector of America, it is likely that our energy demand will continue to rise...If we want to make a serious dent in carbon dioxide emissions...then nuclear power has to be on the table.
Also remember that wind and solar are intermittent energy sources. The sun isn't always shining, and the wind isn't always blowing. Without technological breakthroughs in efficient, large scale energy storage, it will be difficult to rely on intermittent renewables for much more than 20-30 percent of our electricity.

Before the solar loan deal is final, BrightSource Energy must meet financial requirements and the project -- to be located on federally-owned land -- must clear state and federal environmental reviews.
Environmentalists have objected to the project's site in the Ivanpah Valley, saying it will harm the imperiled desert tortoise and other rare plants. BrightSource has offered to reduce the plant's size, but Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife say it should still be relocated.
BrightSource estimates that the project's construction will employ about 1,000 people, and its operation will create 86 permanent jobs.  
It plans to use thousands of mirrors, known as "heliostats," that track the sun in two dimensions and thus capture more solar energy than other solar technologies.
The first plant is expected to begin commercial operation in 2012, the second one in mid-2013 and the third, in 2013.